Monetization, Agile Billing and the 'Internet of Things'

Aria Blog

The Aria blog is the place for news, commentary and discussion on monetization, agile billing and IoT. We cover a variety of topics including forces of market disruption, the Monetization of IoT, billing best practices, trending news and what monetization will look like in the future. Our hope is that you’ll become better informed, be entertained and in turn share your thinking, ideas and comments.

The Digital Age undoubtedly has a huge impact in the way we run and do business today. In fact, according to Accenture, its impact is going to get even bigger – by 2020, digital business will generate “billions upon billions of dollars.” Yes, digital change is coming fast, but few [...

Does your business have what it takes to be successful in the digital age? Are you taking the right steps to thrive? Advanced technology allows companies to put together new products, new services, and new ways of looking at things faster than ever before. According to Accenture, digit...

Recurring revenue models are quickly gaining popularity in a number of different industries, and it’s no surprise considering the annual recurring revenue opportunity for business is predicted to be $500B or more. While telecommunications was the first major industry to adopt recurring...

All businesses, from the enterprise to the SMB, strive to expand their business and grow their bottom line. However, the steps taken and challenges faced in this process differ. The challenge for SMBs is to reduce friction with customers and make it easy to pay things, particularly bec...

Did you know that 80% of current revenue comes from 20% of existing customers? This makes customer retention an integral part of recurring revenue success. So how can you maintain a positive relationship with current customers while simultaneously maximizing the revenue you can get fro...

If companies want to grow they have to do something they’ve never done before – they must actively participate in making the customer successful, which has been a difficult task until recently. In the past, companies were disconnected from their products and disconnected from the...

In a recent survey, nearly 70% of companies said implementing a hybrid cloud strategy was a top priority. That means a large majority of businesses currently have, or will have, partnerships with service providers and vendors to help successfully deploy and run these strategies. Cloud ...

The customer experience is increasingly important in attracting and retaining longtime, loyal customers. We are in an age where the customer is in the driver’s seat; and the processes, services, and capabilities we offer are built with the customer’s satisfaction in mind. That being sa...

Forty years ago the Air Force had a problem. They needed a next generation fighter jet – one that would push the boundaries of maneuverability. A group of General Dynamics engineers understood that the same characteristics that make an aircraft stable also reduce its ability to turn an...

We see evidence of an uneven distribution in market share in companies across all industries. The companies who take advantage of the future and its technologies are performing extremely well and will only do better. Those who have yet to embrace the future are tanking despite being in...

There’s a new revolution coming, but not everyone is ready for it. Christian Kelly, Accenture’s Managing Director, joined as a speaker at Monetize 2015, Aria’s global user conference on recurring revenue and monetization. His session, titled “The New Blueprint for a H...

Everyone’s talking about the Internet of Things recently, but one topic I don’t see addressed much is the difference between Service-Focused IoT and Device-Focused IoT. The concept of “The Internet of Things” has always been about vast, heterogeneous networks of small, limited-purpose ...

Of all the industry segments poised for transformation by the Internet of Things, healthcare is at the top of the heap. According to a new report by Mind Commerce, the use of IoT is expected to grow fastest in healthcare over the next five years, to the tune of $117 […]Sean Kirk
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The moment someone becomes a customer for your recurring revenue product or service, one thing is guaranteed: You will send an invoice or billing statement for each billing period detailing usage and payment due. The way you handle this process, mundane and routine as it may seem, is c...

One of the biggest challenges to running a subscription-based business today is retaining customers – a lot of factors go into successful customer retention programs and efforts. Billing and payment plays an important role in the process as many companies are surprised at the number of...

Just to be clear, no enterprise, no matter how large, has all the capabilities in house to bring a complex IoT product or service to market without some outside help along the way. Take Nexia, an IoT service for running your connected home. Creating this offering required a number of s...

So it’s final – you’ve decided that switching to a recurring revenue model is the best decision for the future growth and success of your business. If you’ve been following along in this series, you’ve already asked the biggest questions, weighed the revenue and vendor options, partici...

For Monetize 2015, we created this video, which provides our take on why monetization is one of the essential capabilities for driving growth for businesses in the new normal. That’s why we chose it as the name for our conference. Two weeks later and I’m still reflecting on the key [...

Enterprise companies are finding new ways to monetize their products and increase revenue through additions to their product catalogs that reflect new billing/pricing models. Traditionally, there are three types of monetization models: one-time, subscription, and consumption/usage. The...

Determining the success of your recurring revenue requires a different set of metrics for measurement. Rather than focusing on individual sales transactions, the emphasis shifts to measures of future recurring revenue streams and customer health over the lifetime of the customer relati...

There are plenty of benefits to the Digital Revolution: auto-payments reduce the chance for missed mail payments, stored customer information saves time at checkout, digital records make checkups and appointments more efficient, etc. And, while we enjoy the time savings and additional ...

You hear the terms “subscription economy” and “subscription commerce” all the time. And with good reason. Subscription-based monetization is transforming business as we know it. But what about usage? Where’s the “consumption economy”? Turns out, it’s all around us.
When most people ...

After two days of learning and growth at Monetize 2015, it’s clear that responding to the New Normal is occupying the mind space of many. Much of the content addressed the implied question: how can we achieve sustainable growth and long-term success while taking advantage of this new n...

Day Two of Monetize 2015 picked up right where we left off last night. Aria CEO Tom Dibble and SVP of Marketing Jon Gettinger set the stage for the conversation around The New Normal – the massive disruption across companies and industries where upstarts like Netflix and Uber are forgi...

Day One of Monetize was a success! Customers, sponsors, prospects, and partners joined Aria executives and employees for a day full of learning at the historic Ritz Carlton in downtown San Francisco. Why Monetize? Considering the range of topics covered, the event could have been named...

The demand for recurring revenue has exploded, evident by the number of companies implementing recurring revenue streams into their business models. Apple TV and Nickelodeon are just two examples of companies that recently announced or launched online streaming services in an effort to...

The decision to deploy a recurring revenue management system is not a technology upgrade – it’s a business transformation that impacts the entire organization and crosses system, functional, and organizational boundaries. The billing project is critical to recurring revenue success and...

Implementing a recurring revenue business model guarantees stable, predictable income and a high customer lifetime value (CLV). It’s no surprise, then, that nearly half of U.S. businesses have either adopted or are planning to adopt recurring revenue models.
Recurring revenue is a dis...

Making the switch to a recurring revenue system is a big decision – a multi-million dollar decision that could shape the trajectory of your company for years to come, to be exact. When you’re looking for the right software vendor to support your initiative, stay way from the traditiona...

Recurring revenue business models provide a compelling business proposition: predictable revenue streams, deeper customer engagements, higher customer lifetime value (CLV). What’s not to like? And when you bring the Internet of Things into the mix, there’s even more to like – if you go...

A successful recurring revenue business requires a focus on monetization across every aspect of the customer relationship, not just billing or payments. Monetization is an end-to-end process from activation through cancelation. While traditional billing systems are designed to manage o...

Making the switch to a recurring revenue business model is not a decision you make overnight. There are many options for filling the gaps between your existing system capabilities and the needs of a recurring revenue system so it’s imperative to understand the benefits, risks, and cost...

As a life-long gamer, I spend an inordinate amount of my time thinking about the vast sums of wealth the gaming industry has squeezed out of me over the last 25+ years. There are two main ways that game companies squeeze some extra profit from their customers in addition to selling gam...

Three days into Mobile World Congress, with just one more to go, and it’s safe to say that Aria Systems has rocked the show (and social media) with evening beach parties and a “selfie” competition that has everyone talking. But amongst the madness, business has maintained its serious...

I read an interesting article the other day that resonated so much I felt it was worth sharing and expanding upon its premise here. The article, originally written by Andrew Dailey of MGI Research, delved into the role of growth and accelerated time-to-revenue in a successful enterpris...

As healthcare providers move into mobile device applications and across enterprise and cloud technologies in the U.S. and abroad, businesses and consumers are demanding more layers of protection. And it’s needed: Recent online security breaches highlight the importance of security, esp...

“Free” reigns supreme when it comes to online marketing. But “pay” is more profitable to your bottom line. In the popular Freemium world of digital offerings, where free and premium content or services are offered, it’s prudent to consider how you will transition free offerings into pa...

Prior to launching a recurring revenue initiative, it’s best to take a step back and assess areas of the business to ensure you’re ready for implementation. If you want the competitive advantage, you have to give your customers what they want, when they want it, the way they want it. S...

Think of your new and existing products and services. Are there other ways you can package and price your offerings? Whether your goal is to grow your customer base, revenue, market share, or share of wallet, recurring revenue models can provide a multitude of options for creating new ...

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